CHAPTER 4

Summary: What if Castle had met Beckett at college? Would they have still wasted so much time dancing around each other? Think 'Veronica Mars' style crime fighting. Think Caskett. Think love and friendship and drama and life.

Disclaimer: I own a few cool things. Castle is not one of them.

Author's Notes: I can not thank you all enough for the plentiful reviews, alerts and favourites! Even if you're a silent reader – thank you (although, I do encourage you to leave a review...please =D). Really, it's quite pitiful how happy I get when I get alerts after posting a new chapter. Keep them coming!

Thank you to Lcsaf, for keeping me in line both when I write terrible things and personally (I did write a more heart-felt thanks but deleted it...honey badger). I am only adding this next note from her in fear that I will be harmed if I don't. She's not entirely to blame for the long wait, don't believe her.

Beta's Notes: Sorry for the delay. It was completely my fault for keeping you wonderful readers waiting on the update. So, blame me, not the author.

"I think books are like people, in the sense that they'll turn up in your life when you need them the most."

– Emma Thompson.

Castle was surprised that he'd made it out of the lecture theatre with Kate's notebook...and alive, no less (he knew he'd been pushing it with that kiss, but he simply hadn't been able to help himself). He hadn't exactly run out of the building, but merely quickened his steps until he made it to the safety of his bedroom at the apartment, away from any repercussions of an angry Beckett. He stayed there, absorbed in the world of his muse's hastily slopped handwriting as the clock on his bedside table ticked over the minutes.

The pages he was most interested in were much messier than the rest, as if the author couldn't get her thoughts down quick had caught a glimpse while Kate had been opening to a fresh leaf for note-taking in the lecture. Words like "murder" and "blood" had predictably caught his curious eye and Rick simply hadto know more. Of course, she never would've let him see her notes anyway, so the line he'd spieled about leaving her alone had slipped out of its own accord. Effectively, the impromptu plan had led Beckett to believe she had won their playful struggle but Castle knew, without a doubt, that she would come for him…eventually...he smirked at his unintended double entendre as he continued reading.

Beckett's scrawl covered the page, giving a factual and vivid description of the scene and the act that had been committed there. Rick had heard secondhand (or was it third? It was hard to tell with the gossip mill on campus) accounts of the horrible event, but the words before him were filling in a lot of blanks and clearing some of the misconceptions up. The speculation posed on paper sparked his interest, not only because of her credible theories (and oh, the ideas those inspired), but for this rare opportunity to see how the brunette's mind worked. Her intelligence, her determination and drive, added with her hotness made Kate Beckett more and more interesting with every little bit that was revealed about her.

Most of the notes were short jutted lines, questions or comments: 'Access to NYU cheerleader uniform?', 'Blood = ketchup.', 'Are there any security cameras in the area?', 'Witnesses? Someone had to have seen something!'.

Feeling a little like a detective; not unlike when reading murder mystery novels or playing 'Clue' with his sister, Rick began to spin wild theories in his head. Maybe the fake body had been dropped by an undercover FBI agent trying to distract the students so that he could…no, the body definitely had something to do with Russian spies… However, with not enough evidence and not being able to trust any of the rumours that had been flying around the college campus, he felt as though the story had been cut in half or some vital piece of the game lost. Perhaps he would cave, go after the girl and share his ideas with her. He could help her solve the mystery and in doing so, hopefully get her to warm back up to him.

"Did you knock?" Rick asked without looking up from the pages.

"Yes," Alexis groaned, flopping herself on the bed.

"I didn't hear you."

"You never 'hear' it when anyone knocks," the teen grumbled. At her brother's unamused look, Alexis heaved herself up with a melodramatic sigh and marched back to the doorframe and rapped against it twice, making a sarcastic face before returning to the mattress. "Happy?"

Rick turned to face her.

"Not exactly. What's up?"

"I've got a test tomorrow, and Mom is having a trivia night with her acting friends here later…"

Rick understood exactly what his sister wanted. "Library?"

Alexis sighed in relief. She knew she could count on her brother. "Yes, but tell her that we're going somewhere else. She'll try to convince both of us to stay and join in all of the fun!" The girl pleaded.

Rick jumped to his feet with the notebook tucked under one elbow as he checked his pockets for wallet and phone. "Quick, Alexis! Paige needs rescuing on the other side of the city and has no one else to save her! I'll drive."

._._._._._._.

Beckett had stormed from the lecture theatre furious at Castle for stealing her notebook and even more furious at herself for falling for his charm. Again! She'd scoured the area for him, but the English major had apparently vanished and Beckett had been forced to make her way back to her dorm with no leads. Lanie's quiet study session in their dorm room had been interrupted by a loud slam of the door and an angry roommate who threw her notebook-free bag against the far wall. The object slumped to the floor and its thrower collapsed heavily onto her bed with an animalistic sound of annoyance. She clutched at her hair and eyes squeezed shut in some attempt at calming herself until Lanie swivelled around in her chair and finally spoke.

"What's got your panties in a twist?"

"Castle."

Sarcasm was usually the flavour of Lanie's caring. "Oooh, what did he do this time: buy you more coffee? Be nice to you?"

That was all it took to get Kate to open her eyes, sit up on the edge of her bed and begin ranting about her thief, her…whatever the guy was.

"I just can't believe him! He is so annoying and frustrating and shallow and…" Kate knew she had begun to ramble in her enraged state about the latest situation with the playboybut Lanie finally interrupted after a few moments.

"So, your master plan is to what: walk around until you find him?" Her friend shrugged in response, silent at last. "Riiiight. Girl, why don't you just ask someone where he hangs out?"

Beckett snorted, appalled. "I am not asking after Richard Castle. Do you know what people would think?"

"Well, if you want your notebook back badly enough… " Lanie trailed off before adding offhandedly, "and, yanno...if you do go after him, a little lipstick wouldn't hurt…"

"I'm going to kill him, not kiss him." Trust Lanie to forgive the guy she wanted to murder. Why were they friends again?

"Mmmhm, I'm just sayin'… You said he brought you coffee for a week, why don't you try that place he's been bringing it from?"

Kate sat in silence as she swung her feet over the edge of the bed, considering her options. She did know which coffee shop it was; he'd always given her the same cups with matching logo. That would be her second visit, if the first place fell through.

Lanie giggled and as Beckett looked over at the sound, she caught her trying to cover her mouth with one hand, her phone in the other. "What's so funny?"

"Uh…text from Javi…" The interrogator became the interrogated in a split second.

"How is Espo? I haven't seen him today."

Panic was not a common expression on the sassy young woman's face. "Neither have I! I was just helping him out with something…"

Kate's smirk brought a raised eyebrow to the party as its date. "Yeah, I bet you were helping him out."

"Uh-uh, don't think you're turning this around on me, Kate Beckett! Weren't you going somewhere? To kill the guy you have the hots for?" Lanie shot back. "Go on."

._._._._._._.

Rick and Alexis sat opposite each other on the middle big table in the section of the library where he had first seen Kate Beckett, extraordinaire. The younger of the two read up on art history for her upcoming exam while her brother sat, unusually silent, enthralled in the notebook he had been carrying around everywhere.

Alexis huffed out a sort of sigh as she turned another page in the book she was looking through and Rick felt himself grin a little as he did the same to the notebook in front of him.

Rick enjoyed helping his little sister out, andhe'd never say it aloud, but sometimes he hated his mother a little bit for being so caught up in her own fame and glamour. He knew their mom worked harder than ever to keep herself on the circuit and took as many roles as possible to be able to afford their nicer lifestyle on a single parent's paycheque, but sometimes he relished the thought of brown bagging lunches to help make ends meet in exchange for being more of a family.

"But life ain't fair, kiddo," Martha had said one night after a particularly bad day. She'd looked so worn, in a way he rarely saw, but recognized as a genuine emotion. "It is what it is, and sometimes…sometimes you just gotta make the make the best of the hand you're dealt because you know you're not gettin' another one."

So, here they were—the Castle kids—in the university's library, each studying their own material religiously. Only Rick knew that his was more interesting than Alexis'…much more…

For an RA, Beckett had been remarkably easy to distract; it almost made him feel remorseful about taking it. Almost. Besides, he didn't intend to keep the spiralbound. He had plans to give it back to her...as soon as he was done pouring over the notes that surely held facts about that mystery dummy found on campus the other night. She'd be okay after an apology and another cup of her favourite coffee, wouldn't she?

"Who would?" Alex whispered.

Damn. Had he really said that last part out loud?

"Yes," the red headed teen replied with a growing smirk. She closed her book, crossed her arms and leaned over the table at him. "Spill."

Castle made a quick glance around the section of the library that they occupied, to ensure his muse wasn't lurking in the stacks somewhere. "Her name is Kate."

"Kate." Alexis said the name with a thoughtful expression, almost as though she were testing how it sounded, how it felt. When he made no attempt to continue, she added, "And?"

"And…she's studying Law…" Castle wasn't sure how to explain this...thing that was going on with Kate and he wasn't so sure that he wanted to share her just yet, either. They weren't the type of siblings that usually discussed such topics, anyway.

The younger of the two leant forward in accusation. "So, why do you have notes on Law?" She motioned towards the pages in front of him. "You're not taking any of those classes, are you? You don't even like it."

Rick Castle's sister: the busybody.

"I can like Law!" he defended.

"You like breaking the law," the girl admonished.

Castle grinned. There obviously wasn't much use trying to hide this from his sister; despite his efforts to keep her out of his love-life (and didn't the thought of his sister and the word 'sex,' together in the same sentence give him the willies?)it appeared she already knewthat this was about a girl."She's just different, you know?"

Struggling to find the right words to describe Kate Beckett, Castle barely noticed the sound of approaching steps as his fingers absently traced the letters he had been writing in her notebook.

"Richard Castle!" If her tone weren't so menacing, Rick would have been happy to hear the voice of his muse. He stared at Alexis in front of him with wide, terrified eyes.

The teen merely grinned back, audaciously and continued Rick's soliloquy. "And she's going to kill you."

He gulped.

Turning on the charm, Castle swivelled in his seat, resting a casual arm on the back of the chair. "Beckett! What a pleasant surprise. How are you?" All teeth and dazzle, he smiled at her.

It didn't work. "Give me the notebook." A second passed in which the guy opened his mouth, ready to feed her another line. Kate pressed on, determined. "Now, Castle!"

"Oh, I love The Notebook! Don't tell anyone though, will you? It would be terrible for my reputation."

So, he was going to play that game, was he?

"Ryan Gosling's face will be a dream of yours if you don't hand over the book." Beckett glared at him.

Rick looked down at the requested object, softly closing the page he had been writing on. "I was just telling Alexis about how it must have gotten mixed up with my things when we were leaving the lecture the other day. Isn't that right, Lex?" His eyes shifted to his sister, his saving grace.

Kate glanced towards the younger girl, noticing her for the first time.

Alexis just shrugged. "When do I ever listen to you, big brother?"

Great saving grace she turned out to be. Castle made a mental note to remember that next time she needed back up. Of course, the note would be long forgotten when the time came, his heroic big brother instincts taking over.

He was too busy narrowing his eyes at his sister that Rick failed to see Kate blinked in surprise. Richard Castle had a little sister. Somehow, Beckett wouldn't have pegged that. Didn't having sisters imply…a respect for women, a caring nature…? She was brought out of her musing by the sound of her annoying classmate's voice.

"Anyway, I was going to get it back to you…" Rick looked up at the girl towering above him as he handed her back the notebook, eyes a flash of blue through skilfully downcast lashes. His lower lip may have been protruding slightly too.

Beckett didn't appear to notice his antics. She stared at the book in her hands, turning it over as though checking a lost child for injury. When it was decided that the cover at least had not been harmed, Kate looked at him, calmer now. "Thank you."

She could be mature about things, even if Castle clearly couldn't. Blowing up in the guy's face in front of his little sister didn't seem like the smartest idea Beckett had ever had. That was all she needed, someone else who thought she was unstable and would watch her with cautious eyes. Ever since her mother's death, all of the looks seemed to be the same. It was degrading.

Castle offered a sincere smile, warmed by the fact that he hadn't ended up like the body she had written about. Maybe she wouldn't need that coffee after all. Of course, he would buy it for her anyway. In fact, if the run down look she wore was anything to go by, he should have probably gone and bought it right then. He watched as her tired eyes shifted once more to his little sister.

"Matasaburo of the Wind." Kate nodded towards Alexis' art textbook. "I have a replica of that on my wall."

The girl smiled in response, pleased to be involved in the exchange. "Rick loves that painting." Alexis watched as the brunette glanced towards her big brother. "Do you like Roy Lichtenstein?"

Rick sat quietly with a content smile pulling at the corners of his mouth, head occasionally turning between the females. Alexis was talking quietly in the library to Kate Beckett like they were old friends, about some of his favourite artists. Maybe his little sister could be useful here, after all.

He leaned back in his chair, watching with genuine pleasure as his sister and his very hot classmate conversed, revealing both their knowledge and taste of art. Kate finally looked at him once the girls' conversation wrapped up. Her smile did not fade.

"So, I guess I'll see you in Crim-Law, Castle?"

The content smile reached his eyes. "Of course. See you at the lecture, Kate."

Beckett nodded firmly, trying not to show the sudden uncertainty that she felt towards her invitation. "Nice to meet you, Alexis."

"Thanks for the painting suggestions, Beckett. I'll look them up."

"You can call me Kate." A final honest smile, a swift wave of goodbye and the girl with the purple hoodie was gone.

Having turned to watch her go, the back of Rick's head was exposed to the dull thud of Alexis' scolding knuckles. "You stole her notebook?"

"I didn't steal it, I borrowed it…"

._._._._._._._.

Later, in the privacy of her room, Kate opened the notebook. Lanie hadn't been there when she had returned from the library; she wondered if Esposito would be around if she knocked on his door… In neat juxtaposition to her own messy scrawl, Castle's carefully sculpted letters had been added beside her own notes. Oh, so he thought he could play detective now too, did he?

Admittedly, his theories were interesting; even half-plausible in some cases, truth be told. Beside her own question about someone having access to a cheerleading outfit, Rick had written, "Girls on the squad, cheerleader's boyfriend/roommate, someone who works at the manufacturing company..." Beckett probably wouldn't have thought of that last one on her own. Not right away, at least.

He had written next to some of her other notes, too.

"Blood = ketchup." "Do you want fries with that?"

Kate scoffed. He was always the joker.

"Are there any security cameras in the area?" There was a phone number and a note under it: "Ask for Dan. Tell him Rick sent you."

No. She would not be using his name and resources to get what she needed.

Turning to what she expected would be a blank page, the young woman found a final handwritten paragraph from her…Castle. This part was even neater than the rest, having leaked from a steadily held pen.

"A lot of the fun lies in trying to penetrate the mystery; and this is best done by saying over the lines to yourself again and again, till they pass through the stage of sounding like nonsense, and finally return to a full sense that had at first escaped notice.

– Anthony Hecht."

Kate had heard of the poet; a New Yorker, she was fairly certain. Unsure of what exactly to make of the quote – well, not the quote itself, but its secondary origin – the young woman closed the notebook and shoved it into the drawer of her bedside table, where Lanie wouldn't find it. A copy of Castle's most recent newspaper piece, which she had salvaged from a sparse stand on campus the day after first reading it over Ryan's shoulder, stared back at her. God, why had she asked him to come back to the Criminal-Law lectures…?

._._._._._._.

The second body dropped the following night. After dinner with her father over stony small talk, Kate had taken her usual route across campus to head back to her dorm. She passed the Student Hall when she caught sight of the dummy.

Similarly displayed to the first body, this one wore a traditional Ukrainian dress as it stared up from its place on the grass—another outfit that could prove difficult to get one's hands on. Kate was just glad that the same rowdy crowd that had swarmed the last body hadn't arrived, pressing in on her as she stood by thesite, alone, processing the details.

She called campus security to report the body and after a second, dialed Javier as well. If Lanie was with him, Kate hoped she would forgive her. She didn't really want to handle this by herself. Especially with the amount of very real looking blood that seemed to be covering the very real looking body. Ryan might be brave enough to test the blood, but there was no way in hell Kate was doing that, or touching anything without a witness for that matter. The wait for someone to arrive felt lengthy as Beckett shifted from foot to foot, gently rubbing her palms together and trying to look anywhere but towards the body at her feet. The unusually icy chill that hung in the air made her glad that she had worn her coat, big red buttons shining from chest to mid-thigh under the lamp light.

Her movements and the gleam of the lamp caused something else to shine too; a small object on the lawn, mere feet away. A few cautious steps and she was upon it, staring down at what looked like…no, it couldn't be. That didn't make sense…

Kate crouched down to study the object in the grass. A second later, a box full of large blue latex gloves waved in her vision. She followed the hand holding them up to the arm and grinning face of Esposito. "Where'd you get these?"

"Nurse's station," he offered with a shrug. "Way I figure it, my tuition completely covers access to the medical benefits of this fine establishment."

Behind him, Ryan was smirking and fluttering his own gloved fingers in a cheeky wave.

Kate rolled her eyes and grabbed a pair from the box.

"Two by two and hands of blue," a voice lilted from the dark.

The trio turned their heads to see Castle approaching them at what could only be called a stroll.

On edge about the body and perhaps slightly unnecessarily infuriated by the sight of the guy, Beckett snapped to her full height and took a threatening step towards him.

"Castle." If looks could kill...

"Why, Kate, fancy seeing you here!"

"What are you doing here?"

"An evening constitutional?" Rick replied coyly.

"A walk?" Kate echoed in disbelief.

Her classmate breathed in deeply. "I love the invigorating feel of the fresh night air on my face."

The young woman ground her teeth in aggravation. Nothing with Castle was ever easy. "You sure you weren't just following me?" she accused. "Maybe come to see a body that you staged?" She pointed to the dummy.

The jovial tone Rick had come with was gone, now defensive. "No, hey, I—"

Beside her, Kate sensed the boys turn from the body to their intruder. Their unasked question was loud in the practically deserted area: Beckett knew Rick Castle? Kate suspected that they would begin to annoy her about Castle just like Lanie had been doing, if not more.

"Then how else did you know where to find the body?"

"I didn't. I was out saving the world already." Really, he had just dropped Alexis off at a friend's house and had to stop by the library on his way home. Whoever came up with the idea of late fees was an ass…

The tension in the air was palpable as Kate stared him down. After a moment, she backed off and turned her attention back to the body; effectively dismissing him.

Rick however, took the opportunity to step closer to the trio and the dummy. "What have we got?"

"We," Kate waved a demonstrative hand between them "haven't got anything."

Rick took a daring step forward. "Oh, we've got something, Kate." He winked.

Of course he winked. They had an audience - a male audience. Where was campus security?

"That's not the point. The point is," she jabbed a pointed index finger into the chest in front of her and he looked down at the contact with a smirk. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Sighing as though defeated, his blues dragged back up to her face; after making a slow detour past her chest, of course. With a sincere voice he told her, "I was at our place." His eyes flickered briefly over her shoulder to the boys who had remained silent, watching the exchange. "You know the place we go at night? In the stacks, checking things out?"

Beckett's hand dropped as she shifted, glancing quickly back at Ryan and Esposito before glaring back at her tormentor. "I know it." After a stern look which told him to keep his mouth shut, she turned entirely to the boys. If he was silent, he could stay. "So, what do you think? Same guy?"

A little flustered by the sight of their no nonsense girl talking to the very definition of nonsense (and like it had happened before – multiple times – no less), Esposito finally stuttered out a response. "Uh, could be. Could be a chica too, though."

"Whoever it was, looks like they've got a costume shop at their dispense." Ryan added. "You don't just find an outfit like that in your closet. Guy—"

"Or girl." Esposito interrupted.

"Or girl," Kevin gave his buddy a pointed look. "Must know some people."

"Not everyone just has an NYC cheerleading outfit lying around either, bro."

"Uh, I do..." Castle looked a little sheepish as both pairs of male eyes widened towards their new 'hero'.

Kate nodded, ignoring their nonsense. "It's Ukrainian. Maybe they know a manufacturer." Damn she'd just used Castle's theory, hadn't she? The three who had dealt with the first body firsthand studied this one, considering the facts, hatching a solving plan.

"Oh! I bet it was Russian spies!" At least Castle apparently hadn't noticed her slip up.

The trio all turned their heads robotically to their tag-along. Russian spies dropping fake bodies in a New York university? Was he serious?

Kate simply rolled her eyes at Castle as she scanned the area once more. Surely making such a big mess would have to leave tracks behind, somewhere...

"Hey, look at this!" Castle looked about as excited as a kid in a candy store.

They followed his pointing finger to the ground where the object lay in the night moistened grass.

As he crouched down to pick it up, Kate grabbed his shoulder, hauling him back to his feet. "Don't touch the evidence. I already saw it."

Rick looked at her disbelievingly. "Then why didn't you say anything?"

Right, like she'd had a chance with the onslaught of Esposito and Ryan with their gloves, and then Castle with his Russian spy theories. She ignored his question. "Here, put these on." Beckett pulled a blur of blue from Esposito's box and handed it to him.

He took them, eyes alight and hands fumbling with excitement as he wriggled the gloves on. "This is so cool!"

Somehow, the guy ended up with two digits sharing a finger space in one of his gloves and Beckett reached out on a whim to pull at the latex in assistance. She ignored her boys' questioning looks but let go of the material with a snap that left Castle gasping in shock, waving his hand around to stop the sudden sting.

Campus security arrived then, finally. Beckett returned to her RA role, stepping aside to explain everything she knew about the situation to the officers. They took notes on a clipboard every so often, but she thought it at inappropriate times, unimportant details. She wondered what training they went through for the job…

Security dismissed the young woman shortly after, insisting that they could handle it from there. She wasn't entirely sure they could, but went back to the guys who were now in a deep discussion. Great.

"No way! That's awesome!" Kate wasn't sure she'd ever heard Ryan so excited.

"Right?" Castle's reply came out a little breathy, awed by the topic.

She chuckled her way into their conversation. "What's awesome?"

Esposito spoke first "Tickets to the game this weekend-"

Ryan cut him off. "And a meeting with Joe Torre!"

They had been doing that quite a bit lately – finishing each other's sentences – she'd have to start cracking jokes about it.

"Joe Torre?"

Castle stepped in to explain. "He's a baseball player and manager-"

"I know who he is! My dad and I use to go to games all the time." That was the first time he'd seen an unmasked Kate Beckett smile, full and real and ravishing.

Rick smiled back, unable to stop himself. He'd caught the 'use to' but proceeded without asking; he didn't want to push it, especially not in front of the boys. "I can get you a ticket too, if you want."

Her smile waivered with uncertainty. "You don't have to do that…"

He caught her eyes just before they fell with hesitance. "I want to."

For a moment, they returned to their silent communication from the library. He wanted to. She wanted him to. She couldn't actually admit that though, could she?

Ryan was never one to hold back. "Can we come, too?"

Castle never looked away from Beckett's face but grinned, unashamed. "Sure."

So, it was decided without Kate ever having to say a word. She would be going on a 'date' with Richard Castle that weekend.

Author's Notes: Now you're all going to review and let me know what you thought, yeah? Thought so. Thanks. Much appreciated. ;) No, really, the appreciation level is off the chart! I love them.

Amy.